The WORD today reminds me that God wants me to love like he does.
They say that no one is perfect. In reality, this is true. Everyone sins and has shortcomings. However, in the gospel, Jesus tells us that we can try to be perfect, just as God, our Heavenly Father, is perfect.
Perfect love loves the unlovable.
It is easy to love those who love us. It is easy to do good to those who are good to us. It is easy to serve those who appreciate our service. Even criminals and thieves love their own. We see a “good” side of convicted criminals, thieves and corrupt officials when they signify their love for their children and family. They also love and protect their own. It is easy to do this because these people are also good to them. They need and love these people. And of course, especially as Filipinos, family has a special part in our hearts. However, God wants more from us, his children.
God wants us to love others the way he does.
In the first reading, we are also reminded of this. Paul reminds and encourages the Corinthians to love like the Macedonians. They loved even despite of their affliction. They loved even when it was not easy to. They were generous and had genuine concern for others despite having problems on their own. They did this because Jesus did this for us.
In the gospel, we see that this is what God wants us to do. God makes the sun shine on both the good and bad. He wants us to be more than wicked people who love only those who are favorable to them. God wants us to love our enemies. God wants us to he perfect.
God wants us to love those unlovable.
God wants us to love the annoying person in the office or in school. That someone who speaks ill of us. The person who does not affirm or acknowledge the good we are trying to do. The ungrateful person we have always been helping. The family member who always has something bad to say about us. It is easy to love those who love us, but God wants us to love these unlovable people in our lives. Just as the sun shines on the good and bad, and the rain nourishes the just and unjust, God wants us to love these unlovable people. For probably, the reason they are unlovable and they act this way is because they do not know love. They do not experience love. You can’t give what you don’t have, and if your life is not filled with love, then you cannot give love.
God has loved us before we were born, and will continue to love us. Let us soak that in, experience that love, and let it overflow in our lives – not just to the people who are easy to love, but more importantly to the unlovable people in our lives.
Do I feel God’s love in my life? How? In what ways has God surprised me and made me feel and remember his great love for me? How do I love him? Do I love him through others? Do I also love and serve those who are unlovable and annoying, or just those who are good to me? Who is the one special person God wants me to reach out to today? What can I do for him or her today?
May we allow God to love us, and as we experience his love, may we love like Jesus.
Father God,
Thank you for today. Thank you for another day to live. Thank you for reminding me of your love. thank you for another chance to experience your love. Sorry for the times I do not follow your command. Sorry for only loving the lovable, those who love me and those who are easy to love. Sorry for not being willing to suffer and experience pain for love. Sorry for not stepping out of my comfort zone to love others especially the unlovable. I ask that you never give up on me. I ask that you continue to love me and fill me with your love. As you do, help me pass on that love to others – especially to the unlovable people in my life. Use me to make your love more alive in this world. Amen.
Blessed Day!
In Christ,
-g-
June 15, 2021
Tuesday of Week 11; St. Germaine of Pibrac
FIRST READING
We want you to know, brothers and sisters, of the grace of God that has been given to the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their profound poverty overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For according to their means, I can testify, and beyond their means, spontaneously, they begged us insistently for the favor of taking part in the service to the holy ones, and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and to us through the will of God, so that we urged Titus that, as he had already begun, he should also complete for you this gracious act also. Now as you excel in every respect, in faith, discourse, knowledge, all earnestness, and in the love we have for you, may you excel in this gracious act also.
I say this not by way of command, but to test the genuineness of your love by your concern for others. For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sake he became poor although he was rich, so that by his poverty you might become rich.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
Praise the LORD, my soul! I will praise the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God while I live.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
Blessed he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD, his God, Who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
Who keeps faith forever, secures justice for the oppressed, gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets captives free.
v R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
The LORD gives sight to the blind. The LORD raises up those who were bowed down; the LORD loves the just. The LORD protects strangers.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
ALLELUIA
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I give you a new commandment: love one another as I have loved you.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
GOSPEL
Jesus said to his disciples:
“You have heard that it was said,
You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
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